Logitech shows off its revamped gaming lineup – two keyboards a headset and a mouse

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Next up, it’s Logitech’s turn to show off its new products to the world. They’ve got the G19 keyboard, the G13 gameboard, the G9x mouse and the G35 surround sound headset. I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that the G stands for ‘gaming’, because these are all very squarely focused at PC gamers.

I’ll start with the G19, which we spotted previously, but called the G18. In every other respect, though, it seems to be the same model – it’s got the same 320 x 240 colour LCD, the same 12 macro keys, and the superb “game mode” switch that disables the Windows key so you don’t hit it by accident at a crucial moment. No sign of that D-pad, though.

The G13 we’ve covered before, so I’ll skate over it briefly. It’s a little keypad that sits next to your keyboard and contains all the gaming-related keys you need, along with a little monochrome LCD and comes pre-configured for a bunch of popular games, including CoD4 and WoW. It looks nice, too. In short, I want one.

Moving on, there’s the G9x laser mouse, which is presumably meant to replace the wonderous G7 as Logitech’s flagship gaming mouse. It’s got the adjustable DPI, and the weight-tuning system of the G7, and adds snap-on grips that let you choose how you want to hold the thing, onboard memory to save game profiles (gamers tend to like high sensitivity for FPS games, low for flight sims) and customizable LED colours.

Lastly, there’s the G35 surround-sound headset. It’s the first Logitech headset to virtualize 7.1 surround sound, which is quite impressive. As it’s got a closed-cup design, it’ll block out a tonne of ambient noise, so you’re unlikely to be interrupted as you’re sneaking up on the witch in Left 4 Dead. The mic is noise-cancelling, too.

The headset’s got plenty of Dolby tech in it, so that MP3s and other stereo sources sound awesome. But what intrigued me the most about the headset was this line from the press release:

If you want to sound like your World of Warcraft character or disguise your voice when gaming, you can install the included software to enjoy six voice-morphing options, including cyborg, giant, mutant, space squirrel, troll and alien.

Okay, Logitech – what the hell is a space squirrel? Something like this, perhaps? Why do I need dedicated buttons on the side of my headset that let me switch between ‘mutant’ and ‘troll’ at will? There’s feature-creep, and there’s ‘ridiculous’.

So how much will it all cost? Well, the G13 gameboard will cost £80 and will arrive in March. The G19 keyboard will cost a whopping £150, and also arrive in March. The G9x will cost £75 and be available in February, and lastly, the G35 headset will cost £110 and be buyable from March.

If you ask me, all those prices are a bit high. PC gamers aren’t generally keen on spending as much on their keyboard as they do on their graphics card. Let’s hope they go down substantially after launch, otherwise I suspect Logitech might have difficulty getting these products in homes.